If Nataku Had Lived
by 8KinTora
Summary: If Nataku had lived after the Promised Day, he would've died soon again anyway, but of his own choosing, and by kinder hands. Oneshot. Enjoy. Reposted from AO3, also under username 8KinTora.


The day after the Promised Day.

The wreckage from that day. It was night.

Lying underneath a metal bar, a pale hand twitched.

Slowly, it grasped the bar above it, and with an effortless heave, the metal bar was displaced, revealing the owner's entirely bare body, and white hair, with the telltale violet three petaled flower on his forehead. He sat up, looking at his hands with his grey eyes, unsure as to how he should still be alive. Fuuma had killed him. The man who was his master and looked so much like his...Kazuki's...father...

He looked around. Where were the Seals? Where were the Harbringers? Where were the two Kamuis? He could not sense them. Which meant that they were either dead, or out of his reach. Everything his whole existence lived for, namely his duty as a Dragon of Earth, was gone. Fulfilled. He was free from his duty. But he felt no sense of freedom. As usual, he felt little, if not nothing.

It took him another moment to process this. Was he even alive? An aching side, from where the metal bar had laid upon him, told him yes. But otherwise he was unharmed.

Something must have made him separate from Fuuma, he rationalized. His memory seemed blurred. Either way, he knew he had died, both ways by Fuuma's hand. Either he had absorbed his body or killed him outright, he couldn't remember clearly. But, in the distance he could see that most of Tokyo was still intact. Which means the Dragons of Heaven had won. Which also meant that Fuuma was dead.

He shakily stood. No one, not a soul, was among the wreckage with him. Upon finding his sash, dirty but intact, he used it to wrap himself. What was he to do now, he wondered.

Then he paused. There WAS something he wanted to do. Something he had promised himself he would do if he lived after the Promised Day. He still wasn't sure how he was still alive. But he was. Taking one last look at the desolation, he turned away and walked towards the lights of the Tokyo left standing.

Opening the metal door to the underground laboratory where he was born, Nataku was greeted by a rush of voices. "Nataku!" "He's alive!" "He's back!" "What happened?" But he ignored them all and let them fuss over him. He was given a long labcoat to wear that reached his knees, and they took the cloth sash to have it cleaned. Not that Nataku minded losing his weapon. He wouldn't have need of it anymore. They fussed over his health, and upon being satisfied that he wasn't hurt in any way, one, the lead woman with glasses, asked him if he needed anything. On a normal occasion he would have just shook his head. But this time he spoke.

"I'd like to request a private meeting with Chairman Tojo."

This stunned his caretakers. He had never asked for anything on his own accord before. Normally he simply followed orders without question. Asking him for anything he needed was just a courtesy.

"Chairman T-Tojo?" the woman stuttered, trying to get over her surprise. "Of course." She turned away. "Someone please send for the chairman if he is still in the building." The clamoring of the labcoats died sown into mutters, probably about his own actions just now, but he was undeterred.

A few minutes later, another scientist approached him. "The Chairman would like to speak with you, Nataku. Please come with me." Buttoning the last button on the labcoat, he obeyed. He followed the scientist into an elevator that brought them to the top floor of Tojo Pharmaceuticals, where he had never been before. His indifferent eyes wandered as they entered the office.

"Nataku is here."

Tojo, who was in his standard yukata, looked out the glass window, his back to them. "That will be all." Oblivious to the mixed tone of relief and distress, the scientist bowed and left.

Nataku bowed as well. "I have fulfilled my duties as a Dragon of Earth. There is no need for you to worry about me anymore, chairman." But Tojo could not look at him directly, and simply nodded.

"I know. You have done well," the chairman sighed. "You have been our finest creation."

Nataku nodded. "But I must ask..."

Tojo's eyes drifted to the ground, and he adjusted his glasses. "Yes, yes, get on with it."

"...Grandfather..."

Tojo froze, his breath catching in his throat. Only now did he dare to look at Nataku directly. "What did you say...?"

Nataku blinked, still devoid of emotions. "You're my grandpa...aren't you..." his voice was flat. More like stating a fact than asking a question.

"Wh-when did you-?" Tojo started, flustered. But then the old man shook his head and turned away, refusing to believe the theory in his head. "No, you're mistaken, Nataku. We created you, but you have no 'family'. And my grandchild's name was-"

"-Kazuki," both of them finished at the same time.

Tojo stopped as he heard his creation speak her name. No, it couldn't be...

"You of all people should know this," Nataku stated. "I AM Kazuki. Genetically."

"Who told you this?!" Tojo whirled around, angry tears threatening to spring from his eyes. "That is an untrue rumor!" But both knew he was lying.

"No one told me," Nataku replied. "I remember."

Tojo stopped in his tracks once more. He had kept this secret for years, and now it was unraveling in front of him. "You...Nataku..." the tears forced their way out of the chairman's eyes. "Kazuki..." And the older man broke down before him, sinking to his knees. Nataku knelt next to him. "Kazuki..." the chairman breathed. "I'm sorry...your papa and I...couldn't save you..."

"I know."

Tojo suddenly hugged Nataku and wept, and Nataku, unused to such a display of affection, except when Fuuma had hugged him last, was taken aback for a few seconds, before tentatively bringing his arms up to embrace his creator as well. He felt nothing, but he wanted to resonate, to empathize, to comfort. But he could not. Literally.

Nataku finally spoke. "But there is something we can do about that."

Tojo looked up. "Anything, my girl... I mean, my boy..."

Nataku attempted a half smile. His next words pierced his creator. "Shut me down."

"What?! No!" Tojo cried, horrified, grasping Nataku tighter. "Do you know how long I've pined for you? And now you ask for death from me?"

"I want to start over." Nataku said. "Recreate me. I want to be Kazuki again." His grey eyes flickered with something. "As much as I want to, I can't move on like the others. I don't feel emotions, grandfather, you know that. It has served me well for the time being." He paused. He did his best to voice his inner desire. "I know you can fix that. I want to feel. I want to be happy, like I was when I was Kazuki. I want to be with you, and Mama, and Papa again."

"But you ARE Kazuki..."

"Nataku could never be Kazuki," Nataku countered. "Genetically, maybe. But he doesn't know what it's like, to be loved, and to love. And Kazuki does."

"You act like you're not speaking about yourself," Tojo remarked. "What about you, then?"

Nataku tried to smile again. "That is up to you, grandfather."

"It will be so, then. I will make sure of it. Consider it done."

Nataku closed his eyes and held his grandfather tightly. "Ojii-san...thank you..."

"My dear little Kazuki-chan," Tojo murmured back.


End file.
